Samsung, Dixons herald huge tablet sales

The 7in Tab has been on sale for three-and-a-half weeks, but the bulk of the sales seem to have taken place early on.

Samsung's Tab: handed out in their thousands

Tacit confirmation of that sales curve is given by Samsung's forecast that it will have shipped a million of the tablets by the end of the 2010.

So that's just 400,000 in the rest of November and the run-up to Christmas.

Samsung taking two months two ship 1m Tabs compares to the four weeks it took Apple to sell that number of iPads.

It's an interesting contrast. Yes, Apple had a big marketing programme, but the media tablet was a new notion back in April. Samsung has the advantage that all that iPad marketing and headlines have established the tablet firmly in the minds of the public as a desirable gadget to own.

Case in point: Dixons, which claimed this week that its 7in 10in, Nvidia Tegra-powered Advent Vega tablet has sold out due to "unprecedented demand".

These problems led Dixons to "temporarily" drop the Folio after a week, to give Toshiba time to sort the issues out. The Folio - for which Dixons has exclusive retail sales rights - is still not back on the giant's PC World or Currys websites.

Still, we treat the claims made about the Vega's sales with a pinch of salt. Selling out of a product depends as much on the stocks you have as the level of demand - it doesn't necessarily indicate that the Vega has been a huge success. ®